Comment Re:Make drivers open (Score 1) 51
Or even better - use coreboot with open drivers.
Comment Third init needed - freedom is cool. (Score 1) 522
I love Debian - this messy debate is what freedom looks like. We should embrace it. This is how real progress is made.
That being said. The evolution of an init system is still needed, and there are some major problems with both systems - thus it is obvious that there is an opportunity for a third system that is more elegant than either of these two.
I think the debate has shown that neither way is correct and that a third way - probably more evolutionary and less draconian will emerge.
syselegant ? sys-e for short?
Comment And the idea that there are no natural sources ? (Score 1) 70
Fine particles are also made by natural events - wind erosion - wave erosion - water freezing - form long before man walked on earth. Why is everything man does seen with 'brown-colored-glasses?
"could be a potential source."
This sure sounds like grant seeking behavior rather than science.
Comment For radio alinement there is nothing better. (Score 1) 155
In this application, the accuracy isn't important - and you are adjusting for a peak value or null. Digital meters try to compensate with a bar graph, but it just isn't the same. And I don't like analogs here out of nostalgia.
I use both kinds of meters - analog meters are poor at accuracy, but if I have to peek circuits, I'm going to use an old analog meter.
There is one more advantage to analog meters - they are low impedance compared to the fancy meters - and that can fool the user if there is electromagnetic noise. Different tools for different jobs.
Google Receives Takedown Request Every 8 Milliseconds 155
Via TorrentFreak comes news that Google is now being asked to remove one million links per day (or an average of one takedown notice every 8ms). In 2008, they received one takedown request approximately every six days. From the article: The massive surge in removal requests is not without controversy. It’s been reported that some notices reference pages that contain no copyrighted material, due to mistakes or abuse, but are deleted nonetheless. Google has a pretty good track record of catching these errors, but since manual review of all links is unachievable, some URLs are removed in error. ... The issue has also piqued the interest of U.S. lawmakers. Earlier this year the House Judiciary Subcommittee had a hearing on the DMCA takedown issue, and both copyright holders, Internet service providers, and other parties are examining what they can do to optimize the process.
In the meantime, the number of removal requests is expected to rise and rise, with 10 million links per week being the next milestone.
Comment Re:Um, they're going to be awful this year (Score 2) 31
When the Moon is full, it rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. Each day, the Moon rises (and sets) about one hour later. So, 2 or 3 days after the full Moon, the Moon will rise 2 or 3 hours after sunset, and set 2 or 3 hours after sunrise.
Which means that, after midnight, the Moon will be high in the sky, ruining the view of the Perseids. It will not "set several hours before dawn."
In short, the response above is wrong.
Comment Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source (Score 4, Informative) 129
And here's a very nice, easy-to-understand explanation of what happened, written by one of the SWIFT astronomers:
Comment False alarm -- just a normal background source (Score 5, Informative) 129
The team which announced the event has now figured out that it wasn't interesting after all:
TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER: 16336
SUBJECT: Swift trigger 600114 is not an outbursting X-ray source
DATE: 14/05/28 07:57:12 GMT
FROM: Kim Page at U.of Leicester
K.L. Page, P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), D.N. Burrows (PSU), V. D'Elia (ASDC) and A. Maselli (INAF-IASFPA) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:
We have re-analysed the prompt XRT data on Swift trigger 600114 (GCN Circ. 16332), taking advantage of the event data.
The initial count rate given in GCN Circ. 16332 was based on raw data from the full field of view, without X-ray event detection, and therefore may have been affected by other sources in M31, as well as background hot pixels. Analysis of the event data (not fully available at the time of the initial circular) shows the count rate of the X-ray source identified in GCN Circ. 16332 to have been 0.065 +/- 0.012 count s^-1, consistent with the previous observations of this source [see the 1SXPS catalogue (Evans et al. 2014): http://www.swift.ac.uk/1SXPS/1....
We therefore do not believe this source to be in outburst. Instead, it was a serendipitous constant source in the field of view of a BAT subthreshold trigger.
This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.
Better luck next time.
Comment For reference, here's one of the current systems (Score 4, Informative) 38
If you're interested in the current state of the art, read this article from the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (April 2013). It describes the hardware and software used by the Pan-STARRS team to detect asteroids automatically in data taken with their 1.8-meter telescope on Hawaii and its 1.4-gigapixel CCD camera.
Comment Re:Because it works (Score 2) 860
This will be one of the few times you'll hear this, but Microsoft did too good a job creating XP.
Correction: They did a good job *FIXING* Windows XP.
If you recall the "instant infection" days where you couldn't install XP and run updates without getting infected. I had a people I helped over the phone who followed the procedure:
1. Install XP
2. Download the SP2 ISO
3. Burn the ISO to disk
4. Start over because they were compromised while downloading the ISO.
5. Install XP, then SP2 via CD.
If I was able to get them a CD I would, but many of my friends where college were in different states, or even different countries, and this was quicker than waiting for a CD in the mail.
Comment Re:Good (Score 2, Interesting) 156
As a non believer that actually lives in Kansas - I find my Christian neighbors to have more respect for my beliefs than the socialist leftists have. Tolerance needs to work in all directions.
In the end - I have the choice of 4 ISP providers in my town - setting up cartels would prevent that. Life is good here - we don't need bigots here - stay on the coasts.
Comment Re:What RMS has in mind ? (Score 1) 287
"Paper money still exist and it is anonymous by design"
Not really when you realize they scan the serial numbers...
Comment Correlation Does not show causation (Score 1) 187
Of course the arrow of causation could also be reversed - or both are caused by some third factor (wealth?). Or research bias/fraud? Or just chance.
But that will not stop most from quoting this as cause and effect.
Comment Re:2x Lithium battery and cars still don't work (Score 1) 172
Except those numbers just are not true. (Normally we specify the cycle life at the point where the battery still has 60% of capacity and full discharge cycles. )
And of course if your goal was to reduce CO2 you have the opposite effect due to conversion losses.
Comment Leaving a voice message used to bother many (Score 1) 211
I think it will become accepted - there may need to be some etiquette established with it's use - not that that has happened with smart-phones.
Just imagine - if you do something stupid - someone might tape it and keep it in your face for ever - the Internet never forgets.
What would you say to someone taping you with their Google-glass and you found it uncomfortable?
What do we say to our kids when we try to talk to them, but the TXTing keeps interrupting?
In the end we are still social creatures, wired to react to irrepressible facial and voice expressions. Even over the phone, I can sometimes tell if someone is lying to me by bits of stress in their voice (but harder with CODEX distortion and latency).
I suppose taping peoples conversations will either make people more honest or more angry.. but definitely less forthcoming - thus an anti-social effect.
